NASA's Psyche spacecraft photographed Mars on May 15 during a gravity-assist pass, capturing rugged terrain in the southern highlands including the 71-mile-wide Fournier crater and the Oenotria Scopuli cliffs. The images also show Mars' tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos. Instrument checks during the flyby recorded a strong magnetic signature where the solar wind interacts with Mars and detected an expected burst of energetic particles. Psyche remains on course for a 2029 rendezvous with a metal-rich asteroid thought to be a planetary core remnant.
NASA’s Psyche Captures Stunning Mars Photos During Gravity-Assist, Spots Phobos and Deimos
NASA's Psyche spacecraft captured a fresh set of images of Mars on May 15 while using the planet for a gravity-assist maneuver on its way to a metal-rich asteroid. Engineers used the close pass not only to tweak Psyche's trajectory and speed but also to perform a full checkout of its science instruments and to photograph rarely seen views of the Red Planet.
The photos highlight a rugged sector of Mars' southern highlands, including the 71-mile-wide Fournier crater and the extensive cliff system known as Oenotria Scopuli. From that vantage point the team was also able to identify Mars' two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, as faint points of light in the images.
"The imager performed brilliantly, delivering some rarely seen views of the Red Planet,"— Jim Bell, Imager Instrument Lead for the Psyche mission.
Beyond photography, the flyby served as an important instrument check. Psyche's magnetometer recorded a strong signal as the spacecraft crossed the boundary where the solar wind interacts with Mars' induced magnetosphere and crustal magnetic fields. Meanwhile, the radiation-sensing spectrometer detected a burst of energetic particles coming from the planet's vicinity, an effect scientists had predicted during the encounter.
"Psyche flew by Mars on exactly the trajectory we needed to set us on a path to rendezvous with the asteroid in the summer of 2029,"— Bob Mase, Project Manager, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Launched in 2023, Psyche is now bound for the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter to study a metal-rich object also named Psyche. That asteroid is believed to be a remnant of an early planet's core and offers scientists a unique opportunity to study planetary formation and composition up close.
Mission Snapshot: The Mars flyby both adjusted Psyche's trajectory toward the asteroid and provided valuable science and instrument validation data during the spacecraft's cruise phase to its 2029 rendezvous.
Help us improve.
